Are "cloze" cards good for an advanced language learner?

General discussion about learning languages
ilmari
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Re: Are "cloze" cards good for an advanced language learner?

Postby ilmari » Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:01 am

Supermemo, in most of its ready-made courses (especially the Extreme series), basically uses cloze cards, as it always gives you with the definition an example sentence where the studied word is missing (all in your target language). I find this way of studying extremely useful to expand your vocabulary and learning new words in context.

I personally do not care if reading the sentence is what triggers the answer. I feel the repeated exposure to the word is more important.

Some examples from Español Extremo 2: https://www.supermemo.com/en/course/espanol-extremo-2
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Re: Are "cloze" cards good for an advanced language learner?

Postby garyb » Wed Jan 16, 2019 9:18 am

For most cloze cards to be useful to me I find they have to be a partial word (c{{c1::asa}}, a{{c1::cantil}}ado, etc.) and/or have a hint (English translation is usually the simplest and most direct way, although a TL definition or synonym can work if it's not too roundabout or unusual). With full words, the answer can be ambiguous and it's easy to just get into remembering the word from a cue as NoManches describes.
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NoManches
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Re: Are "cloze" cards good for an advanced language learner?

Postby NoManches » Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:50 pm

This whole "Anki" thing is slowly coming back to me. Back in the day I used to be an expert....

Anyway, just now I was reviewing some Spanish grammar and remembered that I used to use cloze deletions for working with certain grammar points. For example, there are certain "triggers" of the subjunctive that work VERY well in Anki.

Today I was studying how some verbs change meaning in the past depending on if the verb is in the preterite or imperfect tense, and instantly remembered how useful cloze deletions can be for this type of thing. Here is a card I made earlier. This particular one has a few cloze deletions, other cards only have one or two.

Para aprobar todos los exámenes Francisco {{c1::necesitaba::needed}} estudiar mucho más pero no {{c2::quiso::want to}} hacerlo así que {{c3::tuvo que:: had to}} repetir el año.

Notice how when I review a card, I have to read the whole sentence in order to determine which verb tense I must use.
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Re: Are "cloze" cards good for an advanced language learner?

Postby Cainntear » Wed Jan 16, 2019 9:54 pm

Adrianslont wrote:Nomanches, I understand you now. Thank you. The rephrased explanation helped - and maybe I’m more awake now.

Still I think it’s beneficial if you are thinking, “Oh the answer to this card is ‘acantilado’ and that means ‘cliff’”. Though that maybe a long winded way to go about it.

It's not really. It's just a conditioned association.

One of the big gotchas in designing any learning activity is that when you put a task in front of a human brain, it tries to complete it as efficiently as it can. If there's a more efficient way to complete the task than actually learning the language, it's a struggle to get your brain to actually focus on language and meaning.
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